Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) Trading Down 3.9% on Analyst Downgrade

Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) was down 3.9% during trading on Thursday after Scotiabank lowered their price target on the stock from $73.00 to $57.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Darling Ingredients traded as low as $45.64 and last traded at $45.73. Approximately 433,386 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 2,040,737 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.59.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Darling Ingredients from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of Darling Ingredients from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Darling Ingredients from $60.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Darling Ingredients from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kurt Stoffel bought 8,000 shares of Darling Ingredients stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $41.62 per share, for a total transaction of $332,960.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 10,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $439,965.02. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darling Ingredients

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,378,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $766,448,000 after acquiring an additional 83,219 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Darling Ingredients by 107,533.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,663,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,659,000 after buying an additional 7,656,389 shares during the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its position in Darling Ingredients by 10.4% in the third quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 4,755,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,256,000 after buying an additional 446,483 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Darling Ingredients by 1.4% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,617,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $276,115,000 after buying an additional 61,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in Darling Ingredients by 2.5% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,900,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,812,000 after buying an additional 96,983 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.44% of the company’s stock.

Darling Ingredients Trading Down 2.3 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $43.80 and a 200 day moving average of $45.03. The stock has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a PE ratio of 11.15 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. Darling Ingredients had a net margin of 9.54% and a return on equity of 15.05%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Darling Ingredients Company Profile

Darling Ingredients Inc develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries.